home
by puertoricanjane
Summary: Ness was home and he was finally here to stay.


He was home.

It was strange; last time he had been back, it had been in the midst of an alien invasion and Ness had desperately wanted to make sure his mom and sister were okay before he even thought about collecting a piece of the meteorite. The house was shrouded in darkness then; he could almost fool himself into believing it was like any other night in Onett where they would all be sleeping peacefully in their beds, were it not for the fact that Starmen were out and about, ready to materialize at any moment and vaporize you out of existence.

His grip on his baseball bat had been tight and little waves of PSI had been crackling off his fingers intermittently; he had never been so ready to fight. This was his home, his family, and he wouldn't spare any alien intruder who sought to hurt them any mercy. With that thought in mind, he had strode forward in the darkness, the presence of his friends behind him more reassuring than ever as they prepared to take on any unknown threat together.

So the sight of his mother sitting at the dining room table, calmly sipping some coffee like nothing was the least out of the ordinary was a shock, to say the least. She was as cheerfully unruffled as ever, telling him she was so happy he was home and that there was left-over steak in the fridge if he and his friends wanted any.

Ness had always credited his ability to take weirdness in stride as well as he did to her (well, he supposed his dad had a little to do with it too; he was always unfazed whenever Ness called him on the phone to relay the latest accounts of aliens and zombies and sentient evil circus tents, instead dutifully writing it all down and trying to make Ness promise not to work so hard before hanging up), but really, this was too much.

When he tried to mention the fact that there was literally an alien invasion going on right outside their door, she merely waved her hand and said, "Oh, it's not so bad, except, well, Tracy and I were going to make a night of us painting each other's nails, right? But we ran out of the color we wanted and we can't go into town to get it because of all the aliens and things roaming around. She even tried calling into work to see if she had any in her inventory, but talk about a no-go."

She sighed and mournfully shook her head, before smiling once more and asking again if they wanted any steak. Dumbstruck, they nodded their assent and watched her hum happily under her breath as she moved around the kitchen in the dark.

"Your mom is something else," Jeff said with something like awe in his voice.

Ness couldn't help but agree, feeling both a warm rush of pride and slight concern that his mom could be so flippant about a situation of this magnitude. He smiled despite himself; that was his mom for you.

He couldn't remain long that time or the times he'd been briefly back before. The fate of the world was on his shoulders, after all, no matter how much he wanted to remain in his warm, cozy, and, most importantly, safe bed. It took all the strength Ness had to leave the place he so longed to be; thoughts of home plagued him throughout his journey and there would be times he would be rendered completely useless in battle as a result. Those were the darkest moments of his homesickness, when his mind wasn't on the battle in front of him but back in Onett. All he could think about was the taste of steak or other things unique to home, his attention completely diverted from whatever monster they were fighting for their lives against. There had been times they had only escaped by the skin of their teeth.

His guilt weighed heavily on him then; he cursed himself for his inattention, for putting his friends' lives at risk like that. What if one of them had died and for what? Because he missed his mom's steak?

Ness found the sound of his mom's voice could cure his homesickness, but not his guilt or shame. Even his friends' assurances that it was alright, they understood and didn't blame him in the least, could not ease the tightness in his chest when he looked upon the injuries they had suffered due to his negligence. He tried to push it back and carry on the best he could, but the unfairness of it all screamed at him in moments like these.

Chosen or not, what right did anyone have to ask them to do this? They were just kids; with psychic powers, sure, but just kids all the same.

But, for all that their journey had been long and hard and utterly terrifying at points, it had also brought him some of the best friends he'd ever had. So it felt strange and more than a little discomforting not having them at his side after all they had been through. Jeff and Poo had said their goodbyes in Saturn Valley before parting ways for good; Paula, he had to himself for just a little while longer. He could've been in Twoson in seconds' time, what with PSI Teleport and all, but they had both been reluctant to say goodbye just yet and instead made the journey by foot.

At first, they were still wary and on edge for sudden threats, even though they could easily overpower any at their current levels of strength. Old habits were hard to break, after all, and they still couldn't believe they could walk around without being ambushed by animals or humans under Giygas' influence. They relaxed a little as they passed through Threed, even briefly peeking into the circus tent and laughingly wondering if the zombies would be able to be rehabilitated and become productive members of society.

Ness felt a warm glow come over him then; things were back to normal but Eagleland normal, which he supposed wasn't very if a zombie got a job working for Escargo Express like one of the former Zombie Relief Corps members proposed. Then again, as a kid psychic who had just saved the world from the supreme entity of evil, he supposed he didn't have a lot of room to talk as far as normality was concerned.

But he and Paula couldn't delay the inevitable forever; they both had homes to get back to and were all too soon saying their goodbyes. When the door to the Polestar Preschool closed behind her, Ness couldn't help but feel as if he had been set adrift, as if Paula, Jeff and Poo's warm, steady presences were all that anchored him. He told himself it was understandable; you go through what they had gone through together and a bit of separation anxiety was only natural. He supposed that feeling would pass in time.

It helped when he teleported back to Onett, when he was back on the streets he had walked a million times before. People called out to him in passing as he made his trek home and he responded with a smile and a jaunty wave in kind. He'd make his rounds and talk to all his friends eventually; right now, he wanted nothing more than to go home.

Then he finally was. The closed oak door loomed in front of him and he pushed it open and it was like no time had passed it all; Tracy had ventured out of her room and was laying on the couch, absently running her fingers through King's fur as she watched whatever show was on TV. Mom was perched in a chair nearby, reading one of those romance novels she was so fond of. They both looked up when the door closed behind him and Ness felt tears burn at the backs of his eyes because this was it; he was finally home for real.

He blinked them back the best he could and gave his mom and sister a wobbly smile.

"I'm home."

They descended upon him seconds later and Ness let out a laugh that was a little too tearful-sounding for his liking, but could anyone blame him? He had thought he was going to die, that everything was going to be lost for good, and here he was now, in the arms of the people he loved most in the world. It was almost too good to be true.

Tracy pulled away first to punch him in the arm, their grins matching each other in size when Ness made a show of wincing.

"Took you long enough, big bro. Honestly, we were gonna have to withdraw you from school if you were away any longer. The teachers all think you're terminally ill or something."

She laughed, but hastened to reassure him when Ness paled at the thought of all the schoolwork he had to make up for.

"Jeez, now you're starting to look it too," Tracy teased. "Don't worry; I'll help you make up everything. What's a little sister for?"

"You're the most helpful little sister ever," Ness said, because she really was; her job at Escargo Express had helped him out of more than a few binds in his journey. They spent a few seconds just smiling at each other before Tracy rolled her eyes and proclaimed their sibling moment was over, her grin taking the edge off her words.

Then it was him and his mom, who smiled and tenderly ran her fingers through his bangs. Ness closed his eyes, leaning into her warm embrace once more. More than even steak, Ness had found he missed his mom's hugs most of all.

"That hat of yours looks like it could use a good washing," she noted, causing Ness to laugh into her shoulder.

"Yeah, probably. You'd be horrified to know the kind of hell I put it through."

"Oooh, language, mister," she teased. "You think you're so big and bad just cause you saved the world?"

"Nah, I know that if I ever get too big-headed, you and Tracy will pull me back down to earth."

"You know that's right," she said with something akin to pride and they broke down in laughter.

When they settled down, they moved to sit on the couch and his mom held his hand within her own as she quietly, but warmly, told him of how proud she was, that he had grown to be such a brave, strong boy.

"My little boy saved the world!" she beamed. "How many mothers can say that?"

Ness blushed and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly; he wisely decided not to point out that three other mothers could say the same.

"Mom, have you told him about the photo album yet?" Tracy asked when she finally came back into the room. She plopped down beside him, scratching King, who had settled at his feet moments prior, behind the ears.

"I was getting to it, Trace."

Ness looked between them in confusion. "What photo album?"

"Oh, the photo man dropped by with photos of all your adventures. We were waiting for you to come back before we looked through it; that way you could tell us the story behind every one."

"Photo man? You mean the guy who always came hurtling down from the sky to take pictures of us? That photo man?" He had been the only one out of his friends to accept this phenomenon; always grinning and striking a pose for the man's camera while his friends were in disbelief that he managed to track them down in the most unlikely of places again and again. Or maybe it was the hurtling down from the sky bit that weirded them out. Personally, Ness thought that was a cool, if not handy, ability to have.

Ness' mom nodded and went to get the photo album in question. Tracy then looked at him with no small amount of skepticism. "Does he_ really_ hurtle down from the sky?"

"Well, he is a photographic genius," Ness said vaguely. "And in the world we live in, is it really that surprising?"

Tracy stared blankly at him before shrugging. "I guess not."

His mom came back in the room and brandished the photo album with a grin; they spent the rest of the night just paging through it, his mom and sister seizing every opportunity to tease him about Paula, of course, whom they referred to as 'his little girlfriend' rather than by name. Ness rolled his eyes, but couldn't wipe the smile off his face.

This was home, he thought. Home was his mom's bright smile and unfailing optimism, his sister's teasing, the soothing sound of his dad's voice; home was love and laughter and all the things he had fought so hard to protect.

Ness was home and he was finally here to stay.


End file.
